1) Happy Mode, Sad Mode, DevOps Mode: Stop Worrying and Go Bimodal

There’s a debate going on right now about the best way to run IT: specifically, all those custom applications and services inside organizations. Do we try new, agile approaches, or stick to the old, methodical processes? Gartner did much to start this discussion with their bi-modal concept.

2) Why a Dev/Test Cloud Is Not Optional

How do you create a private Dev/Test cloud to standardize processes, tooling and environments across teams? Recently, I participated in an online panel on the subject of, “Creating an Internal Dev/Test Cloud,” as part of Continuous Discussions (#c9d9), a series of community panels about agile, continuous delivery and DevOps. Continuous Discussions is a community initiative by Electric Cloud, a provider of continuous delivery to businesses including SpaceX, Cisco Systems, GE and E*TRADE. I am not an employee or vendor of Electric Cloud. Below are a few insights from my contribution to the panel.

3) The Path to DevOps: How to Prime Your Pipeline

While DevOps may be overhyped, oversold, and oversubscribed right now, those who approach it as a journey, not a destination, are finding incredible business value. You’ve heard all the reasons why DevOps won’t work: issues with compliance, ITIL, security, production availability, architectural complexity, and so on. But the benefits it can deliver—faster delivery, quality, and security—are within reach. The question is, How do you start the move from silos to streamlined development pipelines?

4) Software Is Still Eating The World

Marc Andreessen penned his famous “Why Software Is Eating the World” essay in The Wall Street Journal five years ago. Today, the idea that “every company needs to become a software company” is considered almost a cliché. No matter your industry, you’re expected to be reimagining your business to make sure you’re not the next local taxi company or hotel chain caught completely off guard by your equivalent of Uber or Airbnb. But while the inclination to not be “disrupted” by startups or competitors is useful, it’s also not exactly practical.

5) Where’s the Heat? Talking DevOps, Use Cases, and More

Transitioning your organization from a traditional IT infrastructure into the world of DevOps is certainly a journey. Sometimes a long one, with many obstacles, but undoubtedly a voyage with a worthwhile prize at the end. Many organizations just embarking on their DevOps journey find themselves wondering, what use cases should they attack first? And who is driving these initiatives?

Fully automated DevOps pipelines are easier to put together than ever before, but full end-to-end automation may be more work than it’s worth for some IT shops. Automating the DevOps pipeline from application development on a laptop to deployment into a production data center environment has been challenging for even the largest enterprises, but it’s now an attainable goal thanks to the spread of APIs and the growing popularity of highly customizable open source software.

7) Agile Companies Need to Change Their Communication Models

Goodbye stability, hello agility: Today’s demanding business world requires a different model, one in which companies must constantly pivot to keep pace with both the market and technology. As a result, adaptable employees have become a gold mine for organizations seeking to stay competitive.

8) How The Symbiotic Relationship Between Persistent Storage and Containers Can Benefit Developers

Containers package application code along with all of the libraries and other resources they require to run. This removes most requirements from the host system, making it far easier to move the container from place to place, from host to host, as necessary. Think of shipping containers loaded in the warehouse rather than the dock, each specially packaged for the contents — from Waterford crystal to lawn mowers — and yet shipped in standardized containers that can be loaded onto a truck, ship, or perhaps even a plane.

9) Is Your IT Ready for the Digital Age?

The ability to exploit the speed of business change has become a key competitive advantage. The question is whether the traditional enterprise IT in the financial services industry is ready for the digital transformation; and if not, what needs to change.

10) DevOps: Stepping Out of the IT Shadows

Simply speaking, DevOps is an approach which integrates the development (Dev) and operations (Ops) teams so that systems can be can automatically managed rather than using a manual process, without compromising on knowledge and capability. It unifies people, processes and products to enable continuous delivery of value to the end users. Or in non-IT terms, it is how you can build quicker, newer features and improvements in response to the market and ahead of competitors.